news

UPCOMING RELEASE: SIGURÐUR - Niu lif Einars Hrafns

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 17:55:00 +0100

The debut album from SIGURÐUR, founded by Czech-Icelandic musician Martin Sigurdur Kajzar is fast approaching.

On November 6, Hypnotic Dirge will release "Niu lif Einars Hrafns" (Nine Lives of Einarr the Raven), following the symbolic journey of Einarr - a wandering soul repeatedly returning in the form of a raven through darkness, death and memory.

"Niu lif Einars Hrafns" is presented as a gatefold LP with an insert including the lyrics in English, Icelandic, and Czech. The CD edition is also quite extensive, with a massive 24 page booklet also including the lyrics in all three languages. In the weeks ahead, we will share more of the original photography adorning the album, but today, we begin by sharing the cover art for "Niu lif Einars Hrafns", created by Martin “Zyca” Richter

"Niu lif Einars Hrafns" also features several special guests from the international black metal scene, which we will made known soon! First song premiere and official pre-order launch are also on the horizon!

• Tracklist •

1 - Formáli

2 - Erda

3 - Lóðurr

4 - Kólga

5 - Fenrir

6 - Midgardsormr

7 - Hœnir

8 - Óðinn

9 - Eftirmáli

ALBUM RELEASE: Epitimia - Тяготение

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 14:33:12 +0100

A brand new Epitimia EP, entitled "Тяготение" is out today!

When we came to an agreement to release "Тяготение", it was decided that rather than running pre-orders and releasing advance tracks from this EP, it was best to just present it in full on release date! Now today is that day - head over to Bandcamp, Ampwall, or Youtube to listen in full. CD's are also available, at the low price of 8€ since it is just an EP. You can also bundle the new EP with 2014's double-album "(Un)reality"

Order CD | Digital

• Album notes •

Founded in 2008 in Saint Petersburg, Epitimia has released six full-length albums, among them Faces of Insanity (2012) and the ambitious double album (Un)reality (2014) on Hypnotic Dirge. This September the band returns with the two-track EP Тяготение (Attraction), their first new recording since 2020’s Allusion. Clocking in at under 20 minutes, the release offers a concise introduction to Epitimia’s current sound - marked by the interplay of harsh male vocals and clean female vocals - and serves as a precursor to a full-length album planned for 2027.

The new EP was shaped over many years, drawing on musical motifs and phrases composed as far back as 2014. The bulk of the work was completed three years ago, with the material only recently finalized.

Thematically, Тяготение is about what constitutes the deepest human connection. It explores states of absolute self-sacrifice, unconditional acceptance, spiritual devotion, and the eternal striving toward an ideal. Together, these songs explore the mysterious nature of true intimacy, from complete, dissolving oneness to the recognition of that feeling’s ultimate inscrutability.

SONG PREMIERE : Stellar Rot - Through the Eternity Stairs

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:37:01 +0100

A brand new Stellar Rot track, the album's opener entitled "Through the Eternity Stairs" is premiering now courtesy of Decibel Magazine!

Read article / stream the song

"“Through the Eternity Stairs’ transports the listener on a cruel journey into the void beyond the mortal realm, where unfathomable horrors exist. This is where the sinister god of a thousand faces shifts the fate of all mortal beings, as he weaves his twisted plans through the fabric of reality. This track showcases what Stellar Rot embodies as a band—choral and symphonic atmospherics over a cold, black-metal spine.”

WHERE THE FORMLESS ONES DWELL

CD/Digital: September 25 | LP: January 2027

Pre-orders live now!

PRE-ORDERS LIVE: Marea - A Caress Of Autumn For All The Lost

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:41:29 +0100

We are launching pre-orders for the release of Marea's second album "A Caress of Autumn For all the Lost"

Jointly released by Hypnotic Dirge and Masked Dead Records, "A Caress of Autumn For all the Lost" contains 8 new tracks totataling nearly an hour. Available on DLP in two colours variants - "Ocean Blue" and "Autumn Red" - limited to 100 copies each, and on CD presented in a 4-panel digipack with a 12 page booklet.

DLP, CD, and Digital all release Friday October 9

Pre-order CD

Pre-order DLP

• Album Notes •

Marea - meaning "tide" in Italian - is the one-man project of Matteo Balzarini from Legnano, in northern Italy. Founded in 2023, Marea delivers a haunting blend of atmospheric black metal, post-black, dsbm, and doom metal, interwoven with more intimate, dreamy passages featuring acoustic guitar and post-rock sections.

“A Caress of Autumn for All the Lost” explores themes of isolation, remorse, regret, broken dreams, and the fragility of our relationships: how a single wrong word or choice can destroy everything we have built over a lifetime, and how pride and selfishness can cause us to lose those we love and hold dearest. The album explores the feeling of being unworthy of happiness, driving us to seek psychological ways to hurt ourselves - and, by extension, those who care about us. Where the sea dominated previous works, autumn now takes its place. Though the central imagery has changed, the evoked emotions remain the same: profound loneliness, melancholy, and nostalgia.

Just as music can be both desperate and blissful, this duality and contrast also run through the album’s concept and lyrics. The title is intended as an embrace and a message of hope for all the “lost”, an invitation to appreciate life’s small beauties, to seize the moments of joy and happiness it offers, to set aside our suffering for a fleeting moment, and to forgive ourselves. It is a raw struggle with our inner demons and a confession of our deepest weaknesses and fears - an album for all our mistakes and the resting place of our sins.

SONG PREMIERE : Marea - Aurora

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:43:52 +0100

We are launching pre-orders for the release of Marea's second album "A Caress of Autumn For all the Lost"

Pre-order CD | Pre-order DLP

To mark this occasion, we are also premiering the video for the track "Aurora", taken from the new album.

Speaking about "Aurora" Matteo Balzarini of Marea says:

"This song is probably the heaviest and most aggressive I have done to date, while still maintaining the melancholic feeling that runs through the whole album. Conceptually, it's about the initial hope and enthusiasm for new beginnings and their subsequent loss as you watch your dreams shatter.

I used the metaphor of dawn to represent that fragile spark of hope and dusk as the inevitable crash, ending with a desperate need to start over."

Watch "Aurora" here:

• Video Credits •

Directed by: Maurizio Del Piccolo

Actress: Serena Beccu

ALBUM RELEASE: Dysthymia - The Morning Darkness

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 19:14:29 +0100

Dysthymia's sophomore record "The Morning Darkness" is officially released this evening!

In collaboration with Anti-fascist Black Metal Network, we are premiering the full album right now.

Stream it on Youtube, Bandcamp, and Ampwall.

Jointly released by Hypnotic Dirge and Red Nebula, "The Morning Darkness" is presented in both CD and LP formats.

The CD - presented in a 6 panel digipack in an edition of 300 - releases today alongside the full album stream, while the LP is scheduled to ship in November! Limited to 200 copies, divided into two colour variants, 100 in "Fallen Leaves", and 100 in "Woodland Soil", you can pre-order the LP and secure your copy before they sell out!

Order CD

Pre-order DLP

• Album Notes •

Conceived in 2019 by members Grushenka Ødegård and Ray King, New England depressive black metal band Dysthymia crafts music steeped in despondency, isolation, and hopelessness. Following their raw self-titled full-length in 2021 and a split with Saeva in 2024, the band returns with their sophomore album "The Morning Darkness".

The album pulls you straight into a cold, heavy atmosphere that feels genuinely lived-in rather than theatrical. Layered and dynamic yet grounded in its atmosphere, Dysthymia excels at crafting tracks that breathe and build. Quiet, desolate moments give way to rising tension, driving the music forward with momentum that peaks in huge emotional crescendos. Dysthymia's greatest strength is its excellent sense of flow and dynamic songwriting, weaving mournful leads, sparse and distant piano, acoustic guitar, tortured screams, and ethreal clean vocals over a foundation of distant tremelo riffs and prominent basslines.

"This album was written and recorded slowly, over the course of several years, during late nights and early mornings. Through sadness and joy, suffering and relief, life and death, we have returned to share these songs with you. It is our hope that you enjoy them and find them useful in making your way through the days, where even the dawn does not bring light."

• Tracklist •

1 - I Live With What You Created

2 - We Can Never Go Back

3 - To Choose Life is to Choose Grief

4 - Until I Was Nothing

5 - The Morning Darkness

• Album Reviews •

"Depressive black metal that doesn't pretend to be dark—a slowly developed, honest album that maintains the Hypnotic Dirge quality standard. If you like NONE, you'll find something to enjoy here."

-Metal Division Magazine

"A lot of maturing and focus has been done to create an album so driven, so sonically absorbing as this"

-Lord of the Shadows

"The Morning Darkness resonates in a way that is possibly due to where my head is at. I don’t honestly know, but none of this feels forced or inauthentic in any way. I hope that this pulls you in to give this a listen. If you do, please give it the respect it deserves by providing your full attention. It deserves it." 10/10

-Musipedia of Metal

• Bandcamp Player •

The Morning Darkness by Dysthymia

PRE-ORDERS LIVE : STELLAR ROT - Where the Formless Ones Dwell

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:20:16 +0100

We are now taking pre-orders for the debut album from Melodic Black Metal duo Stellar Rot.

"Where the Formless Ones Dwell" is available on CD and LP formats, with the CD/Digital release scheduled for September 25 and the LP scheduled to ship later in January 2027. The CD edition is presented in a 6 Panel digipack adorned with artwork from the Brazilian artist Blasphemator Art, limited to 300 copies for the first pressing.

The LP edition is available in two colour variants, a "Celestial Shards” variant; limited to 100 and a “Drifting Shadows” variant; also limited to 100 copies worldwide.

As mentioned, the LP has a shipment date a bit later, scheduled for January 2027 as this was a last-minute edition to our 2026 plans, but we definitely felt that this release deserved an LP edition as well!

Pre-orders are live for both formats now!

Pre-order LP

Pre-order CD

Stellar Rot is also debuting their first ever track today entitled "Miasmic Diasomania".
You can stream it on Bandcamp, Ampwall, and Youtube.

• Album Notes •

Where The Formless Ones Dwell” is Stellar Rot’s debut launch into the atmospheric black metal genre after years of performing together in a traditional black metal band. Stellar Rot began as a concept to explore the deep lore around the Grimdark universe, pulling imagery from a world tormented by countless horrors from beyond the void and humankind being pushed to the brink after unfathomable atrocities they committed to conquer the stars over the course of several millennia.

Before a single note was written, the duo spent countless nights over the course of many years, debating and studying art and media around this endless and vast universe. The concept of the album was fully developed in 2025, with the goal of creating 5 separate unique tracks, each fully distinct and designed around a specific god, with the entire structure of the song - every note, lyric, melody - built around servicing that god from beyond the void. Tracks such as “Behold, The Crimson Path” that service the god of war and bloodshed encompass punishing, brutal riffs and tribal drums to showcase the call to war, while other tracks such as “Miasmic Dipsomania” display a much different feel, embodying a god whom deals in much more sinister affairs and hosts ambient, evil riffs with chaotic drums that slowly gives the listener the feeling of descending into pure madness.

Each track transports the listener into a distinct section of the endless void - from landscapes encapsulating prismatic winds and crystal formations, to the putrid, festering lands of rot and decay. Stellar Rot seeks to bring this haunting and unfathomably cruel world to life in its purest form. Descend into the mouth of ruin, and discover what horrors await.

• Tracklist •

1 - Through the Eternity Stairs (6:20)

2 - Behold, The Crimson Path (6:57)

3 - Where Pestilence Mocks the Mortal (6:36)

4 - Miasmic Dipsomania (5:40)

5 - Eternal Rites of the Lost (6:27)

Total: 32:02

UPCOMING RELEASE: Sigurður - Nine Lives of Einarr the Raven

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:06:11 +0100

SIGURÐUR is a Czech-Icelandic black metal project created by Martin Sigurdur Kajzar - musician, producer and composer moving between Ostrava and the Icelandic Westfjords.

Deeply inspired by Norse mythology, Icelandic landscape and the atmosphere of the old Scandinavian scene, the project combines raw black metal with atmospheric passages, ritual elements and cinematic storytelling.

The debut album, Nine Lives of Einarr the Raven, follows the symbolic journey of Einarr - a wandering soul repeatedly returning in the form of a raven through darkness, death and memory.

All music, lyrics and arrangements were composed and performed by Martin Kajzar, with several special guests from the international black metal scene.

"Nine Lives of Einarr the Raven" will be released on LP and CD formats November 6 on Hypnotic Dirge Records.

In the weeks ahead, we will introduce the album's guests, delve deeper into the album concept and reveal the official album art. Preorders will also launch soon alongside the debut song from Sigurður.

• Tracklist •

1 - Formáli

2 - Erda

3 - Lóðurr

4 - Kolga

5 - Fenrir

6 - Midgardsormr

7 - Hœnir

8 - Óðinn

9 - Eftirmáli

ALBUM RELEASE: Ghosthreads - selftitled

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 02:33:46 +0100

We are re-releasing the debut self-titled EP from Ghostthreads, a project by members of the Russian post-black metal band Swampborn. The Ghostthreads EP was recorded during Swampborn`s "Beyond Ratio" sessions, an album released by Hypnotic Dirge in 2020.

The Ghostthreads EP explores the soul’s infinite journey between worlds - the dissolution of space and time, the transcendence of human limits, and a melting into the flows of the Otherworldly.

• Official Streams •

Hypnotic Dirge Bandcamp

Swampborn Bandcamp

Hypnotic Dirge Ampwall

Hypnotic Dirge Youtube

• Tracklist •

1 - Abyssfall (7:12)

2 - Ghostthreads (8:34)

3 - Castlight (4:13)

Total: 20:00

• Credits •

Mixed by Konstantin Ratnikov (Anvil Rec.)

Cover art by @protopopart and @alvaset_art

• Bandcamp Player •
selftitled by Ghostthreads

UPCOMING RELEASE: Marea - A Caress Of Autumn For All The Lost

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:03:38 +0100

Marea - meaning "tide" in Italian - is the one-man project of Matteo Balzarini from Legnano, in northern Italy. Founded in 2023, Marea delivers a haunting blend of atmospheric black metal, post-black, dsbm, and doom metal, interwoven with more intimate, dreamy passages featuring acoustic guitar and post-rock sections.

“A Caress of Autumn for All the Lost” explores themes of isolation, remorse, regret, broken dreams, and the fragility of our relationships: how a single wrong word or choice can destroy everything we have built over a lifetime, and how pride and selfishness can cause us to lose those we love and hold dearest. The album explores the feeling of being unworthy of happiness, driving us to seek psychological ways to hurt ourselves - and, by extension, those who care about us. Where the sea dominated previous works, autumn now takes its place. Though the central imagery has changed, the evoked emotions remain the same: profound loneliness, melancholy, and nostalgia.

"A Caress Of Autumn For All The Lost" will be jointly released by Hypnotic Dirge Records and Masked Dead Records on October 9, 2026. The album will be available on DLP, CD, and Digital formats.

Pre-orders and the first song premiere will be available soon

• Tracklist •

1 - A Caress of Autumn

2 - The Beauty of Broken Things

3 - Eremita

4 - Still Horizon

5 - Aurora

6 - For All The Lost

7 - Night Birds

8 - Absence of Self

Cover art & visual design: Francesco Gemelli